X-Message-Number: 25344
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 06:10:10 -0800 (PST)
From: Jim N <>

Subject: Family background/beliefs and how it affects attitudes towards cryonics

This cryonet comment is a spin-off of comments here:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/54030
and here:


http://www.network54.com/Forum/thread?forumid=365293&messageid=1102423782&lp=1103033663
and here:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=291677&messageid=1103206037
Referring to Rick Potvin statement about his dad's
afterlife beliefs:

Rick, somewhere in one of your multitude of forums,
you wrote that your dad turned down cryonics, saying
that when he died he would pop into alternate
universe.

THat weird, man!

But that belief of your dad is probably one BIG reason
why you were able to consider cryonics, and why you
are now signed up.

Here is a theory of mine: most cryonicists had parents
who were rather different in their beliefs about death
or religion, at least while the cryonicists-to-be were
growing up. 

My mother was a Jehovah's Witness. Now, they have some
sort of different beliefs about death. As I recall,
they think that when you die, you're dead, until and
unless god brings down the second coming or rapture or
whatever it is, at which time the dead (certain
selected dead, i.e., Witnesses) rise from their graves
to live on the earth as immortals. Pretty good, huh?
Pretty sweet deal, huh? Now, see, that is a rather
concrete and non-abstract afterlife scenario, and
perhaps it planted in my youthful head the idea of
immortality here on earth. 

Also, my dad, at least when I was growing up, never
mentioned religion or an afterlife to me. He seemed
antagonistic towards religion. However, about 10 yeras
ago, when I broached the subject of cryonics and death
with him, he intimated that he thought there was an
afterlife.  No other details were forthcoming....

Also, my parents were different from most other people
in their attitudes towards conformity with respect to
society. Both were quite nonconformist and my mother
and many other Jehovahs Witnesses even actively seek
out a role as outcasts from society.  My father came
from a ranching family that rejected government
handouts for ranchers, even to the point where they
went into massive debt to avoid doing so. Rather
stupid of them actually.

But my nonconformist family background is probably
what gave me the background to consider cryonics.

That and the fact that I read hundreds of books when I
was a kid, many of them science fiction, and in
particular, most of the works of Robert Heinlein.




		
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